Review: Guardians 3000 #1

Now THAT’s more like it!

Despite the “subtle bigotry of low expectations” perpetrated against this title by Brevoort and Alonso (hereinafter referred to as “Bonso”), it succeeds on nearly every level.  And before I move on, I’d like to address Bonso’s ongoing bigotry against cosmic books, characters, and writers.

Before this book was ever released, Brevoort made several comments suggesting that he expected it to be a low seller and a quick cancellation.  Alonso apparently felt the same – recently divulging how surprised he was that sales exceeded “expectations.”  Bonso are responsible for the degradation of Marvel Cosmic into the “Marvel Universe” where, just like all Earth-based characters, all the cosmic characters are (stupidly) somehow subordinate to and less powerful than The Avengers.  Bonso are responsible for the horrific messes that are Loeb’s NINO (Nova In Name Only) and Bendis’ GotGINO (Guardians of the Galaxy In Name Only) – replacing better writers/concepts/characters/characterizations with inferior writers/concepts/characters/characterizations in a vain attempt to appeal to Spider-zombies and Avenger-zombies.  Bonso were surprised when the MCU chose to make a Guardians of the Galaxy movie before a movie about many of their favored street-level characters – and even more surprised when it outsold the Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor movies.  Basically, Bonso clearly doesn’t understand or respect cosmic – and they can’t seem to get cosmic right.  They try to reduce cosmic to street-level, and that just doesn’t work.  So Bonso – since you consistently lead in the wrong direction about cosmic and refuse to follow anyone who knows better than you about cosmic, why don’t you just get out of the way?  Give cosmic its own line and appoint someone who likes and understands the characters to lead it.  Then, recuse yourselves from any further involvement with cosmic – and take Loeb, Bendis, Duggan, NINO, and GotGINO with you.

G3000 proves what an accomplished science-fiction author can do with good source material.   Each character has its own voice, and the interactions between characters are fluid and natural – just as we would expect for a team that’s been together for a long time.  Abnett incorporates the slang of 31^st Century into the character interactions in such a manner that – while unfamiliar – it is nevertheless easily understood by any reader.  Just as respectable science-fiction should, Abnett takes current grounded science facts and theories and extrapolates plausible future technology based upon these facts/theories.  He wraps all of this into a tight, action-packed story that leaves the reader wanting more and excited about picking up the next issue in the series.

In contrast, Bendis’ GotGINO just takes hackneyed street-level Avengers-type stories/concepts and sets them in space, and Duggan’s NINO just rips off hackneyed Spide-Man concepts and sets them in space.  Bendis’/Duggan’s characters are interchangeable, their interactions stilted, and their storylines implausible.  Neither Bendis nor Duggan take any time to actually produce respectable science-fiction – preferring instead to load heavily on absurdity and then just throw things at the wall to see what sticks.  That’s why Abnett soars and Bendis/Duggan sink.

The coloring of G3000 #1 is acceptable, but the art leaves something to be desired.  Sandoval’s style is too cartoonish for this book.  Devito, Walker, or McGuinness would have been better choices for this book as more realistic renderings tend to serve cosmic books better.

Abnett delivers a powerhouse first issue that breathes new life into the original GotG team.  I would go so far as to say that this is the only truly cosmic book that Marvel is producing at this time.  All the rest being touted as cosmic are really just “pseudo-cosmic” at best.  So pick up your copy of G3000 today for Marvel Cosmic written as it should be.